We are told about this war right from when we first meet the Sontarans (there are three, I believe, episodes in the original series where they appear) though we do not meet a Rutan until the Horror of Fang Rock. Then there are the Sontaran's and the Rutans. Okay, he did steal a Tardis, but this is more to do with Omega, who ends up being the bad guy in The Three Doctors, as well as a couple of other episodes.

It is interesting that most of the time lords seem to end up being the Doctor's enemies. In this story he is trying to broker a piece between the Sontaran's and the Rutans, though it also has a lot to do with the creation of Gallifrey and the black hole created by Omega to power the Time-Lord's technology. He has friends on the high council, and also a pupil (though it is before he becomes the Grandfather of Susan). Where the Master fits into things is beyond me (though the Master does make an awesome villain).Īs mentioned, this story is set back before the Doctor became a renegade, though was still quite rebellious. The idea is that there were three founders of Gallifrey: Rassilon, Omega, and The Other, and the suggestion is that the Other is actually the Doctor. It turns out that the Doctor once sat on the High Council of the Time Lords (this was before he stole the Tardis), though another story arc suggests that his origin goes back even father than this, to a time when Galifrey was first established. This, I believe, takes place way back in the Doctor's past, maybe when the First Doctor was a lot younger. However that never materialised, and it was going to be a lot longer before the TV series were finally resurrected.

The new series was also going to be somewhat more gothic and consist of 45 minute episodes rather than the traditional 4 episodes of 20 minutes each. The idea was to release a series of books based on the 8th Doctor, though it was suggested at the time that he was no longer going to have travelling companions.

The publishers of the books changed in the late 90's, with BBC refusing to renew Virgin's license, and instead took over the publication of the books themselves. It was published by the BBC, who hold the ultimate rights to the Doctor Who franchise. This is part of a series called 'The Past Adventures of Doctor Who'. Anyway, I saw this book back in the time when it was first released, and decided that I would give it a go. Okay, I am a big fan of Doctor Who, particularly the older series (the newer series seem to lack some of the zest that the older series had, and are a little less thrilling) but I would hardly call myself die hard. The comments on this book are extraordinary, particularly the one who says that this book is incredibly rare and only for die-hard Doctor Who fans.

Doctor Who by Lance Parkin